Diego Matias Hypólito is a Brazilian gymnast and the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the floor exercise. He is the first male gymnast from Brazil, and South America, to win a medal at the World Championships. He also won 63 medals in World Cup. Hypólito has represented Brazil in three Olympics: 2008, 2012 and 2016. He received the silver medal in Floor at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. He is also the younger brother of Daniele Hypólito, the first Brazilian gymnast ever to medal at Worlds.
Early life
Hypólito was born in Santo André, in the ABC Region, Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, but moved to the city ofRio de Janeiro. He is the son of a bus driver named Wagner Hypólito and a seamstress named Geni Matias. He has Greek ancestry from his father, he also has Portuguese ancestry coming from his maternal family. As a child he had his first contact with the sport at the Flamengo Rowing Club, the same one his sister Daniele Hypólito used to train. At her insistence, he specialized in solo exercises, in which he won his first titles as infantil and later as júnior.
Career
Hypólito began gymnastics at the age of seven, following in his older sister's footsteps. He won the floor exercise event in the children's division at the Brazilian National Championships in 1997 and was the all-around junior National Champion in 2001. By the age of 21, Hypólito had competed in five World Gymnastics Championships, in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. A floor exercise specialist, he qualified for the FX event finals in all five competitions, placing fifth in 2002, fourth in 2003, earning the gold medal in 2005, the silver medal in 2006, and the gold again in 2007. With his 2005 win, Hypólito became the first male South American gymnast to medal at Worlds. In the spring of 2008, Hypólito contracted dengue fever. However, he was able to recover and resume training in time to compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he was Brazil's only MAG representative. In the preliminary round of competition, he performed on floor and vault, and qualified to the floor event final in first place with a score of 15.950. In the floor finals, he fell on his last tumbling pass to finish the meet in 6th place. Hypólito was one of three male Brazilians in artistic gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but he was eliminated during the qualification stage. However, in the 2016 Summer Olympics, held in his home country, he finished fourth in qualification for the floor exercise, and won a silver medal in the individual event final.
Eponymous skills
Hypólito has one skill on floor exercise officially named after him called the Hypólito on floor, which was successfully completed when he won the gold medal on the individual floor event at the 2006 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Final in São Paulo, Brazil, defeating the then reigning Olympic floor champion, Kyle Shewfelt of Canada, in the process. The skill is a full-twisting Arabian double layout and was assigned a D-score of F.
Personal life
Hypólito came out as gay in May 2019. In an article for UOL Esporte, Hypólito described many years of struggling with his sexuality because of his deeply religious upbringing, but wrote, "I want people to know that I'm gay and that I'm not ashamed of it."
